Is one human? Or merely alive? Like a blade of grass equal to all existance in the moment it is torn? Yes. If pain is fundament, then a blade of grass can know all there is.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Khomeini has offered us the opportunity to regain our frail religion ... faith in the power of words.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

America is a hurricane, and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate if incredibly stupid and smug White Protestants who live in the center, in the serene eye of the big wind.

I was thinking that surgeons had to be the happiest people on earth. To cut people up and get paid for it-that's happiness, I told myself.

Love asks us that we be a little braver than is comfortable, a little more generous, a little more flexible. It means living on the edge more than we care to.

Reaching consensus in a group is often confused with finding the right answer.

The way to achieve happiness is to have a high standard for yourself and a medium one for everyone else.

America is a country that seems forever to be toddler or teenager, at those two stages of human development characterized by conflict between autonomy and security.

Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wise.

If you are afraid of someone, you immediately give them an advantage and give them entry to your awareness field.

I can die anytime I want. I wish I could do the same with life.

Don’t just look for your miracle. Become someone else's miracle.

Pictures made in childhood are painted in bright hues.

Doing stuff that I don't have to talk about because I'm not in a public company is fantastic.

Light griefs do speak, while sorrow's tongue is bound.

When we get into the spirit world, and the veil is withdrawn, we shall then perhaps understand the whys and wherefores.